Digital Image Design Ltd.

Overview

Digital Image Design was a game development studio established in 1989 by Martin Kenwright and Phillip Allsopp from a bedroom in a small house in Runcorn, England. Originally known as Piercingautomatic Limited, it was soon renamed Digital Image Design. The company developed titles for both PC and console. DID was best known for 3D games at a time where very few games used similar technology. After some titles such as F29 Retaliator (1989), RoboCop 3 (1992) and Epic (1992), the company worked exclusively on flight simulation products with titles such as TFX (1993), EF2000 (1995), F22 Air Dominance Fighter (1997) and Total Air War (1998). Its reputation landed the company the opportunity to compete in the area of military training simulations for the Royal Air Force, British Army and Royal Navy. In 1997 the company received the BS EN ISO 9001 code TickIT certification to develop military simulations. Real fighter pilots were training using derivatives of DID's gaming software.

The company ended up in a major dispute with the French company Infogrames, who had acquired DID's publisher Ocean Software in 1996. The French company being the sole publisher and shareholder launched an aggressive takeover to gain control of the company and ultimately acquired DID. Martin Kenwright, along with six other early founders and key employees of DID, left to form Evolution Studios in June 1999, to develop driving games for Sony. Only three months after Martin Kenwright's departure their was a mass walkout of DID staff to Rage Software plc. The company was then sold to Rage after Infogrames threatened with legal action for contractual interference by Rage.

In 2003, after the demise of Rage, many of the original key staff members of Digital Image Design formed Juice Games (later called THQ Digital Studios UK and now closed), and many others left to join Evolution Studios.